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(NewsNation) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stances on key issues like vaccines and the Russian-Ukraine war have made headlines during his campaign to challenge President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
The independent candidate recently announced lawyer and entrepeneur Nicole Shanahan as his pick for vice president.
Kennedy’s presidential nomination has garnered support from as many as 20% of Democrats, but Republicans viewed him more favorably at 40%, according to reports.
While his poll numbers have fluctuated since launching his campaign, Kennedy has a 41.7% favorability rating based on 74 polls as of early April, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Kennedy’s favorability rating is a crucial factor in determining his prospects as a third-party candidate in the presidential race. As a candidate outside the traditional two-party system, he faces a unique set of challenges in garnering widespread support. His favorability rating provides insight into the extent of his appeal to voters across the political spectrum.
RFK Jr. and Vaccines
Kennedy pushes back against critics who say he has anti-vaccine views. During a June 23 town hall hosted by WMUR-TV, Kennedy said if he were president, he would mandate pre-licensing safety trials for vaccines and “allow parents to make of their minds about whether they want to use vaccines for their children.”
“What I’ve said is I’m pro-science and pro-safety and we ought to subject vaccines…to at least the kind of rigorous placebo-controlled trials that are mandated for every other medicine,” Kennedy told WMUR.
Vaccines are tested extensively by manufacturers before the FDA issues a license.
A vaccine being developed for distribution in the United States goes through two separate research phases before an initial three phases of clinical trials, according to the Food And Drug Administration. Those trials test the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. By the time it reaches the third phase of initial clinical trials, the vaccine is generally given to thousands of people, and researchers compare those who received the vaccine against those who received a placebo.
In some cases, the FDA requires additional post-market studies or clinical trials for continued research.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says immunization is the best protection against certain illnesses. Annually, tens of thousands of people get sick from diseased that could be prevented by vaccines.
RFK Jr. and Foreign Policy
Kennedy has made peace a priority when it comes to foreign policy, promising to “end the proxy wars, bombing campaigns, covert operations, coups, paramilitaries, and everything else that has become so normal most people don’t know what’s happening.”
He’s specifically vowed to end the war in Ukraine. His plan to stop the fighting includes offering to withdraw U.S. troops and missiles from Russia’s borders and convince Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
“UN peacekeepers will guarantee peace to the Russian-speaking eastern regions,” Kennedy said on his campaign website. “We will put an end to this war.”
Border Crisis
Kennedy visited the nation’s southern border last year, calling it a “dystopian nightmare.”
The presidential candidate described seeing hundreds of people cross the border – a seemingly “hopeless” situation he said was “created by the federal government, that local people are being forced to hold the bag on.”
“It’s extraordinary,” Kennedy told NewsNation. “It’s kind of the best part of America and the worst part at the same time.”
During WMUR’s town hall, Kennedy said he’s “not a big fan of Trump” or his border wall. After speaking with officers patrolling the border, however, he said physical barriers are necessary in some areas with high-density populations and advocated doing more to keep migrants and U.S. citizens safe from cartels.
Economy and Healthcare
Kennedy has said he will enact policies that favor “small and medium businesses” and break up “too-big-to-fail” banks and monopolies.
“When crisis strikes, bail out the homeowners, debtors, and small business owners instead,” Kennedy said on his campaign site.
He also believes healthcare is a key economic issue, and has vowed to make existing services available to all, including “alternative and holistic therapies that have been marginalized in a pharma-dominated system.”
Transgender Athletes
The question of trans athletes in gender-restricted sports has received more attention amid a wave of proposed legislation this year.
Kennedy is opposed to transgender athletes competing in sports outside of the sex they were assigned at birth. During a podcast that has since been removed from YouTube for sharing misinformation, Kennedy leaned into the baseless theory that chemical exposure to herbicides causes “sexual dysphoria,” Politifact reported.
In an interview with NewsNation’s partner The Hill, however, Kennedy said he’s opposed to “mean-spirited” legislation and supports peoples’ “gender choices.”
Jan.6 Capitol Riot
Kennedy called the events of the Jan.6, 2021 a “protest that turned into a riot” in an appearance on “CUOMO,” adding that his belief on whether it was an insurrection depends on how the word is defined.
“If your definition is armed men who are intending to take over the United States government, then it wasn’t that,” Kennedy said. “I think there were people there who wanted to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the other’s. I would say it was a very traumatic day in our nation’s history and people committed criminal acts. Those people deserve to be in jail.”
Saying his purpose is not to “exonerate” them, but rather to “restore peace,” Kennedy said he would appoint a special counsel to determine whether the sentences of Jan. 6 convicts are appropriate.
“I think we’re living in a time when Americans don’t trust their government anymore and that is really what the problem is,” he said on “CUOMO.“ “There is no trust in government and we need to restore that trust.”
Kennedy got some backlash after his campaign sent out a fundraising email that said people who were facing charges connected to the Jan. 6 riot as “activists” who were “stripped of their constitutional liberties.”
He told NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo that his team “made a couple of mistakes,” and that it was his responsibility.
“We have a lot of hardworking people on the campaign but we’re all drinking from fire hoses,” Kennedy said.
Campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear said the emailed statement “was an error” that had been inserted by a new marketing contractor and “slipped through the normal approval process.” That marketing vendor’s contract has since been terminated.
Gun Control
Kennedy said during WMUR-TV’s town hall that he believes in gun control but won’t “take people’s guns away.”
“I’m not going to take people’s guns away and I believe in gun control myself.”
He recently came under fire for baseless comments he made during a Twitter Spaces event when he seemingly linked mass shootings to pharmaceutical drugs.
Third-party Potential
Kennedy has flirted with the idea of running on the Libertarian Party ticket, raising alarm bells for Democrats who fear he will dent President Biden’s reelection prospects.
In an interview with CNN host Michael Smerconish in January, Kennedy, who has been chided for aligning with certain right-wing political and anti-vaccine sympathies, openly acknowledged that a Libertarian Party bid could be tempting, especially since he is well-regarded among the party’s top leadership.
“That’s something that we’re looking at,” Kennedy said. “We have a really good relationship with the Libertarian Party.”